Olefins are important items of commerce. Their many applications include employment as intermediates in the manufacture of detergents, as more environmentally friendly replacements where refined oils might otherwise be used, as monomers, and as intermediates for many other types of products.
The dimerization and/or the isomerization of olefins by transition metal complexes represents an important class of industrially relevant chemistry. The major types of commercially used catalysts for these reactions are alkylaluminum compounds, certain nickel-phosphine complexes, and a titanium halide with a Lewis acid such as diethylaluminum chloride (DEAC). Thus, it would be desirable to develop other catalyst systems and methods of using same for the production of linear dimers and/or the isomers of olefins.